The Material Culture of Spanish-Indian Mexico Author(s): Robert Redfield Source: American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol.

31, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1929), pp. 602-618 Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/661173 Accessed: 03/01/2010 22:22
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THE MATERIAL CULTURE OF SPANISHINDIAN MEXICO

BY ROBERT REDFIELD

HE materialcultureof present-dayrural Mexico, in con-

trast to the non-material culture, preserves almost unmodified a large number of pre-Columbian traits. The small number of the Conquerors brought with them no great economic system with which to displace that already in operation among the Indians. They decapitated the aboriginal society, as it were, removing gods, priests, and calendars, but they left the machinery of everyday life; and indeed became themselves a part of it. Quite opposite to the situation among some other aboriginal groups that survive as an enclave of modern civilization, in rural Mexico an Indian worships the gods of the invader and uses his kinship terminology,but the materials and techniques of his practical life are often much the same as those of his ancestors. Bandelier gave us a short account' of the material culture of Cholula, in the State of Puebla, and Starr has scattered notes2 on the material culture of many villages in southern Mexico. I do not know of any systematic outline of the material culture of any one Mexican village. This is the excuse for publishing the following notes, which summarize some observations made in the course of an eight months' stay in Tepoztlan, State of Morelos, during 1926-27.3 Tepoztlan is by no means an unusually conservative Indian community. It is almost entirely Indian in blood and bilingual in speech, but all Tepoztecans make trips to Cuernavaca, and not a few are familiar with Mexico City. It
1A.F. Bandelier, Tourin Mexicoin 1881.Paps. Arch. Reportof an Archaeological Inst. Am., Am. Ser., 2: 95-99, 120-152, 1884. 2 Frederick of SouthernMexico. Reprinted Starr,Notes upon the Ethnography from vols. 8 and 9, Proc. DavenportAcad. Nat. Sci., 1900. 3 Made possibleby a fellowshipgrantedby the Social ScienceResearchCouncil. 602

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represents the wide middle-ground of rural Mexican sophistication. With the exception of ironworking, which soon made obsolete the Indian techniques in stone, bone, shell, and copper, most of the elements contributed to the material culture by the Spaniards supplement rather than supplant technical systems of the Indians. Pre-Columbianpatterns persist especially in the house, in house furnishings, and in cookery. Here there are many contributions from European culture, but these remain of secondary importance. The old techniques survive also in transportation, but there the post-Columbian contributions are of much greater relative importance. Finally, clothing, especially that of the women, is an aspect of material culture where Indian elements have been almost entirely supplanted by European. The house-group is the dwelling of a single family with accompanyingoutbuildings. As house sites are almost always walled off from the streets and as houses are rebuilt upon the rubble of earlier structures, the hotse, except near the central plaza, is usually above the level of the street. The house is always rectangular. The walls are most commonly of adobe; but may be of rough stones set in a mud mortar, or withes, wattle, or cornstalk. The roof, except where poverty prescribes mere thatching, is of tiles (a European improvement); the roofs are almost flat. There is ordinarily only one entrance to a room. Where there is more than one room, passage from one to another may most commonly be effected only by going outside and entering the single entrance of the adjoining room. Window openings, except in the more Europeanizedhouses near the plaza, are rare. Glass windows and screening are practically unknown. Floors are of dirt. Where wealth or Spanish influence has been stronger, most particularly in buildings near the central plaza, the form of the house may be modified in one or more of the following respects: The rooms are grouped around a patio. A roofed corridor runs around the inside of this. Or, much more commonly, the single room is fronted by a roofed porch, built integral with the house. The roof of this porch is supported by columns; there may be

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an arch or two. The roof may be peaked. The porch (corredor) and perhaps also the house, has a brick floor. There are several windows; some of these contain iron grilles. The walls are plastered and perhaps tinted. However mean or however important, the house is ornamented with a numberof floweringplants, usually potted in oil cans, and standing outside the house on a rack. The tripartite house division into sala, kitchen and storehouse, emphasized by Bandelier4and well illustrated by Starr,6is not always clearly marked. Sometimes the kitchen is merely a flimsy lean-to against the house, or is in a corner of the corredor, or is even in a corner of the single room. But more often it is a separate room or even an entirely separate structure. The storehouse (S., troje)6 is practically always present, and is usually placed immediately in front of the dwelling. It occurs in three forms, all of which are probably of entirely pre-Columbian design. The ohuatlapil (N., ohuatlapilli) is most common. This is circular,about six feet high and of varying diameter; it is made of vertical cornstalks bound together with rope. It contains maize on the cob (S., mazorca). Also made to contain mazorcais the cincolote (N., zincolohtli). This is square, of poles laid horizontally, one pair upon another at right angles to the first until a structure is raised tall enough to contain the maize to be stored. The cuezcomate(N., cuezcomatl)is a vasiform granary, plastered inside and out with clay. In it is kept shelled corn. Perhaps every fourth dwelling has a sweathouse (S., temazcal; N., temazcalli),well known as a part of the pre-Columbianhouse group. This is made of stone set in mortar. It is rectangular,approximately square, and about five feet high at the center. The roof is low-peaked. The one entrance is barely large enough to permit entrance of a man on hands and knees. Although occasionally now used merely to achieve cleanliness, its use, as in preColumbian times, is chiefly therapeutic.
4Op.cit., 129.
6 Frederick Mexico. An Ethnographic Album(Chicago, Starr,Indiansof Southern 1899),pls. 44, 45, 46, 47. 6 "S." indicates term used in Spanish discourse, "N.," term used in Nahuat discourse.

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These are all indigenous features. Although bees and turkeys were domesticated before the Conquest, it is not clear to what extent the beehive-a simple wooden box-and the fowl-house preserve pre-Columbian elements. The fowl-house (S., gallinero; N., pizcalli) is a part of nearly every domestic establishment (but in many homes some of the chickens perch on ladders in a corner of the dwelling). It is usually built of stone, to keep out marauding carnivores, and has about the size and form of the sweathouse, except that the roof is tiled. To protect a horse or burro a thatched or tiled roof is erected in a corner of the yard. Something in which to store water completes the house-group. This is either a plastered tank (S., pila) or a large jar (S., tinaja; N., acomitl), or merely an alcohol tin. Neglecting for a moment the additional furnishings of the more urbanized and well-to-do, one may declare the domestic equipment within the house to be almost entirely pre-Columbian. The kitchen is the center of domestic activity and around it cluster most of the accessories. Four features are inevitably present in all houses, of whatever poverty or pretensions. These four features vary hardly at all in form or position,7 and preserve, hardly modified at all, pre-Columbian form and function. These four are the hearth, the griddle, the grinding-stone,and the pot. The hearth (S., tlequil; N., tlequilitl) is sometimes no more than three stones set in a triangle to support the griddle;but more often it is of many stones, plastered, and horseshoe-shaped.iUpon it fits the griddle (S., comal; N., comalli), a flat, circular tray, which occurs in only one diameter (about eighteen inches). Although griddles of iron are common in the cities, in Tepoztlan it is always of clay. When not in use the griddle stands on edge at the back of the tlequil. The three-legged grinding-stones (S., metate; N., metlatl) with long hand-stone (S., metlapil; N., metlapilli) are of the well known pattern. They are of andesite. The pot in which the maize is cooked (S., olla de nixtamal; N., nexcomitl)stands beside the hearth. In some houses the tlequil,which burns wood, is supplemented
7 Cf. Bandelier, op. cit., 138; Starr, Notes on the Ethnography . . . , 3.

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by the brazier (S., brasero)of Spanish origin. This burns charcoal. It may be of iron and brought from the city, or it may be a homemade copy in stone and clay. Only a small part of cookery in Tepoztlan is done on the brazier. Most of the other articles which contribute to culinary technique are Indian, not European. The small andesite mortar N., texolotl) N., molcaxitl)and the pestle (S., tejolote; (S., molcajete; are used chiefly for grinding chile. Two of the three common forms of basket are likewise pre-Columbianin general character. These are the forms without handles: the chiquihuite(N., xiquihuitl), which is stiff, as wide as it is deep, and of wickerwork and the tompiate (N., tompiatl), which is flexible, twice as deep as it is wide, and woven of soft reed. The other basket, which is of the shape of an ordinary European market basket, with a handle, has no Nahuatl name (it is always called canasta) and is apparently a form introduced by the Spaniards. Its principal use is in marketing; therefore it is carried only by women, and on the left arm under the rebozo. The whole forms a canastarebozo minor complex of post-Columbiandevelopment. The other two baskets are used for the storage and transport of food (the is also used to strain honey), and may be carried by chiquihuite either man or woman. Mexican pottery has been much modified since the Conquest. Many forms are European, and the ware is in general inferior. Shell-decorated Cuernavaca pottery is common in Tepoztlan, and there are occasional pieces of glazed and painted Oaxaca ware. The ware in general use in cookery is the plain ware of Toluca. The pot (S., olla; N., xoctli) preserves the ancient form; the pitcher (S., jarro) and the saucer (S., cazuela)are more European than Indian and are mentioned by the Spanish names only. Minor elements in the culinary paraphernaliaare the shallow wooden boat-shaped mixing bowl (S., batea), the wooden spoon (S., bateidor),and the small, rectangular, handled fan (S., aventador)with which the fire is blown up. For picking fruit from trees a cage-like picker of cane, on the end of a long pole, is employed. This is called (S.) canastilla or (N.) acatecomatl.

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Other house furnishings vary considerably with the wealth and education of the owner. Characteristically, however, the bed (S., cama; N., tlapechtli) is a mat (S., petate; N., petlatl) spread on the ground or on a low wooden platform. Often anothex aboriginal form of bed is used: splints of Mexican bambu (S., otate;N., ohtlatl) are stretched in both directions across a framework of low posts driven in the ground. Tables are common but often absent in poorer houses. The backed chair is not rare, but much commoneris the low, backless bench. Although occasionally reminiscent of the pre-Columbianicpalli, it nevertheless is generally European in form. No adult sleeps in a hammock, but babies are usually cradled in a flat swinging framework,which is homemade. This resembles other Indian cradle-frames,but bears the Taino name hamaca. Certain domestic accessories of European origin have become firmly associated with the aboriginal elements and are always found in the house. Chief among these are the steel knife, the small iron kerosene flare (S., candil), the candle, and the alcohol tin (S., bote)in which water is carried and stored. Two of these tins are yoked together and swung over the shoulder. In this device (S., aguantador),of course European in character, water is hauled by the men. A woman carriesonly a single tin. A domestic shrine is found in most houses. This may be no more than a printed or painted picture of a saint, but more commonly it is a carved and painted wooden figure, usually a Virgin or a Christ. This may be only a few inches high, or as much as six feet. Most are from early Colonial times. In front of this figure an incense burner (S., sahumeria; N., popochcomitl) is placed. This is of black glazed pottery. In it copal gum is burned. Flowers are also placed before the figure, in bottles or vases, and pictures of other saints are hung near the image. This shrine is the center of domestic worship and ritual. Candles are burned before it on feast days; here the infant Christ is "put to bed" on Christmas Eve and taken up on Candlemas; before this image are placed gifts brought on birthdays or those brought by a boy's parents during the negotiations leading to a marriage with a daughter of the house.

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Any property not in use is kept on plain wooden shelves or in covered wooden chests. Extra clothing is hung on nails. Walls are frequently decorated with pictures cut from newspapers, with sentimental picture postcards, and with little clay toys and ornamental dishes brought from other villages. This description of the domestic equipment relates to most of the houses in Tepoztlan. A conspicuous minority, however, as has already been indicated, enjoy elements of modern industrial civilization. A house of this limited class may possess a few china dishes, or a few glasses, some metal pans, perhaps a sideboard or a metal bed or even a phonograph. The sewingmachine alone, however, among modern machines, has become a part of the general Tepoztecan material culture; it is found in all parts of the village and in houses otherwise Indian in character. Cookery8 has been but slightly modified by European elements. The most important foodstuffs contributed by European culture are beef, pork, sugar, rice, chickens, eggs, and milk. Less important contributions are potatoes, lima beans, wheat flour, chickpeas, citrus fruits, and spices. The maize-squash-beans complex remains, however, the basis of cookery. These staples were and still are cooked with chiles and tomatoes. Honey is still used as a sweetening, but has been largely supplanted by cane sugar. Cinnamon has displaced the native vanilla. The apparatus of cookery and the accompanying techniques are almost untouched by European influence. Maize is boiled with lime and ground on the metateto a dough which is the basis of a variety of foods. Chief among these is the tortilla (N., tlaxcalli), the inevitable griddle-breadwhich accompanies every meal both as a food and as an eating utensil. The principal variations on the tortilla are forms to which shortening has been added (S., itacates, N., itacatl; S., clacloyos;N., tlatloyos; S., gorditas), and tortillas filled with chiles, beans, or other foods (S., memelitas,N,. tlaxcalmimilli; S., tacos; S., migajes, N., xalli). These variations are devised to carry food away from the house or keep it edible
8 The statement as to cookery is based on extensive materials collected by Mar' garet Park Redfield.

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some time after preparation. The same dough, stirred in water and strained, forms the basis of gruels (S., atoles; N., atolli), which are flavored in several different ways. These were a daily food in pre-Columbian times, but in Tepoztlan today they do not constitute a regular part of the daily fare.9 To the same dough fat is added, and sometimes other ingredients, to prepare tamales (N., tamalli), which are rolls of this dough boiled in corn husks. Although the sweetened tamal is prepared to sell at the nearest railway station, in Tepoztlan itself the tamal is never a part of the daily fare; but, as in ancient days, is eaten only at fiestas. Another pre-Columbian food category of undiminished importance includes the moles (N., molli). These are highly spiced sauces served with pieces of boiled meat. The spices are ground in the molcajete or on the metate. There are three moles, two festal and one secular. The last is a relatively simple sauce, chiefly of chile, served with pork or beef. It is often eaten at breakfast. Mole verde is a more complex combination of elements, served usually with beef. It is never served without tamales, and only at fiestas celebrating a santo. Mole poblano (or "turkey mole," S., mole de guajolote; N., huexolomolli) in Tepoztlan may be made of as many as nineteen ingredients. It is always served with turkey and only on the occasion of very important fiestas, characteristicallyweddings and baptisms. Another category, tortas, includes vegetables, potatoes, etc., which are ground, mixed with egg, fried, and served with chile. These represent an application of the aboriginal grinding- and chile-patterns to introduced foods. The cultivated and purchased foods are supplemented with a number of wild vegetable foods and occasionally game. It will be observed that a very few techniques of cookery are employed. Foods are boiled, fried,or toasted. In spite of the presence of the oven, used by bakers and pastrymakers, domestic food is never roasted or baked. Three meals a day are generally eaten. Tortillas and beans
9 As they do, for example,in Cholula. Bandelier,op. cit., 138.

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are found at nearly every meal; often there is little or nothing else. Meat is most frequently added. The commonest beverage is coffee, homegrown and toasted. Chocolate, the aboriginal drink, is everywhere known but its use is restricted by its cost. When made, it is beaten to a froth in the ancient manner. Milk is not rarely drunk, but usually sweetened with sugar or flavored with chocolate; it is almost never used as an ingredient in cookery. A variety of "teas" are made of native and also of introduced herbs and seeds. Commercial sugarcane alcohol is largely drunk by the men. The maguey does not flourish at this low altitude; therefore pulque (anciently octli) must be imported, and its use is confined largely to festal occasions. The ancient male costume of the Aztecs, although modified according to the social position of the wearer, was composed of three principal garments: the maxtlatl, a belt or loin-cloth with the ends hanging down in front like an apron; the tilmahtli, a woven cape worn over the shoulders and knotted in front; and the cactli, sandals of leather or woven of maguey fiber. Of these three the first has entirely disappeared,10 the second influenced the form and use of the modern zarape, while the third remains little changed today. For all articles of men's clothing worn today in Tepoztlan, Nahuatl terms are in use. The ancient term tilmahtli is applied to the zarape, and the sandals are still called cactli or cuitlaxcactli("leathersandals"). The other terms are descriptive compositions, or are Spanish roots modified to suit Nahuatl linguistic patterns. A man wears one or more shirts (S., camisa; N., cotontli) and over these, when the weather is colder or for better dress, a blouse (S., blusa; N., panicotontli). These, like the trousers, are made of cheap white cotton cloth bought in the local stores and are made up by the women. The blouse is buttonless; the lower ends tie together in front. For holiday attire the shirt may be pink or blue, or a colored vest (S., chaleco)may be added. Loose white trousers (S., calzones; N., cahzon)of the same material are
10It may possiblybe wornby somein Tepoztlan,as it still is elsewhere in Mexico. Bandelier,op. cit., 121.

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worn. These are wide at the waist; the sides are crossed in front and the trousers are held up by a cloth belt or sash (S., faja or cenidor; N., teilpiloni). A man often goes barefoot. The sandals are of the ancient pattern except that steer leather is used. A woman does not wear sandals except when travelling. The straw hat (S., sombrero; N., cuatlayecahuilotl),worn almost everywhere in Mexico, is of course of Spanish origin. A few styles are "correct" in Tepoztlan. It remains to mention the zarape. Ramon Mena" derives the word from Nahuatl tzalanpepechtli (tzalan, interwoven, and pepechtli,thick blanket), a descriptive term applied by the Indians to the heavy blankets, often woven in with metal threads, carried by the conquerors and placed by them upon the ground when resting or sleeping. This blanket and the tilmahtli fused, culturally, and became the zarape. In Tepoztlan two forms are worn: the blanket form, wrappedaround the shouldersand held together with one arm, and the poncho form,'2in which the head passes through an opening in the center. The zarapeis entirely masculine, but on unusually cold days a woman may borrow a zarape and wear it beneath her rebozo. The machete(N., tlateconior tepoztlateconi), the characteristic Mexican steel knife with the curved tip, is so generally carried that it may be mentioned as a part of the costume. The woman's costume in Tepoztlan preserves fewer indigenous elements, although this is not the case in many other villages in southern Mexico. Before the Conquest it consisted of two principal garments: a loose blouse (huipilli), and a skirt (cueitl), consisting of a rectangular cloth wrapped around the lower part of the body. The huipilli, under that same name, is worn in many Indian communities south of Morelos, but not in Tepoztlan. In Tepoztlan the woman's costume is European in origin, and the names of the garments in Nahuatl discourse are Spanish, except those for the skirts, which are descriptive Nahuatl terms. Over white cotton underdrawers (S., pantelones; N., pante11 Ramon Mena, El Zarape. Analesdel Museo Nacionalde Arqeologia, Historia y Etnografia, epoca 5a, Tomo 1: 373 ff., 1925. 12 This ponchois probablySouth Americanin origin.

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lontin) is worn an underskirt (S., enaguas adentro;N., cueiztactli), usually also white, and over this a colored overskirt (S., enaguas encima; N., cueipanitl). The skirts are ankle length, very full, and gored. A collarless shirt (S., camisa; N., camisahtin), tucked into the skirt, covers the upper part of the body. Over it is worn a blouse (S., saco; N., sacohtin), and over this usually an apron. This either includes an upper piece covering the chest, when it is called (S.) babero,(N.) baberohtin, or does not, when it is called delantaltin. Around the waist is wound a sash (S.) delantal, (N.) (S., cenidor; N., zinidor), dark blue or gray, about eight inches wide and six to ten feet long. This is the only garment of those here enumeratedwhich is woven in Tepoztlan. Almost invariably there are earrings, often of gold (S., aretes; N., areteztin), and a short string of beads, most commonly red seeds (N., corales; N., coraleztin). Except when walking long distances, when sandals may be worn, or when in city dress which includes shoes, the feet are bare. The only over-garment is the rebozo(N., payo),'3a sort of shawl worn over the head and upper body; one end is drawn across the breast and thrown back over the left shoulder. This is the characteristically Mexican garment worn almost everywhere and by every class except the highest. The rebozo,like the zarape, is a post-Conquest development, but unlike the zarape it has no Indian progenitor. It probably representsa cheaper and more practical modification of the Spanish mantilla by the working Indian woman; and it had already taken its form by the end of the sixteenth century.14 Many women possess, for Sunday costume, a one-piece dress of finer material. This is nearly always white, with a flounced skirt, and ornamented with pink or blue ribbons. No women ever wears a hat except when a man's hat is worn for work in the fields or travelling in the sun. When sitting in the sun a woman may wind the rebozoon her head like a turban, but the real turban headdress frequently found in southern Mexico is absent. The hair is worn in two braids, or, particularly
do not know the etymology of this word. Jos6 de J. Nuflez y Dominguez, El Rebozo. Mexico: Departamento Editorial de la Direccion General de las Bellas Artes, 1917.
13 I

14

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by girls and young women, in a single braid. No cosmetics are used except that at the Carnival talcum powder may be put on the face. Two generations ago the prevailing woman's costume in Tepoztlan was of another sort, a sort which included more aboriginal elements. This costume still survives in Tepoztlan, where two or three old women still wear it; there are probably others in the neighboring hamlets. It consisted of two principal garments: a skirt (N., pitzcueitl), of homespun, white above the hip and black below, where it was pleated, and a white triangle of similar homespun worn over the head like a poncho with . ne cornerhanging down the back. This latter garment is the quechquemitl. It is a probably indigenous garment worn by Indian women in central and northern Mexico. These two garments were made locally on primitive looms. Today all textiles are imported either as readymade garments or as cloth to make up into clothing, except some of the women's belts which are still made locally. The children's clothing reproducesthat of the adults. The aboriginal transportation system and that introduced the by Spaniardsexist side by side in Tepoztlan, as they do nearly everywhere in Mexico. Burros, mules, horses, and oxen, with accompanying paraphernalia-saddles, bridles, lassos, yokesare used in patterns substantially those of sixteenth century Spain. Only the wheel is not used in Tepoztlan, because the steepness and rockinessof the roads make its use impossible. Nevertheless a very large part of transport takes place on human backs with the aid of aboriginal devices. Burdens are supported with the aid of the forehead tumpline (S., mecapal;N., mecapalli)whichis sometimes assisted by another line across the chest. Articles are carried either in the chiquihuite,which is then bound to the mecapalby means of the ayate (N., ayatl),15 a tough, coarse-woven cloth of maguey fiber, or else in the huacal (N., huacalli), a crate of rough-hewn sticks. Water is carried in a hollow gourd (S., bule; N., atecomatl),supported by a lacing of
15 On the use of the ayateamongthe Otomi,see Starr,op. cit., 8.

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leather thongs. Women, as has already been said, carry purchases or small belongings in the canasta, or occasionally in a long rectangular fiber bag (S., bolsa). Men never carry these, but use for the machete or other possessions a small flat square bag of vegetable fiber, the morral (S.) Of musical instruments, recognized by the Tepoztecans as such, all are European: guitar, flute, saxophone, cornet, etc. Ritual music is sharply distinguished and ordinarily not called music. Of instruments employed for this purpose the horizontal is entirelypre-Columbian. wooden double-slotted drum (teponaztli) One of the two teponaztlisremaining in Tepoztlan has every appearanceof being an actual pre-Columbianartifact. The huehuetl, the vertical drum with the skin head, which in Mexico is a commoner survival than the teponaztli,does not occur in Tepoztlan. The small flageolet (S., chirimia) which together with a small drum of European pattern is played on the roof of the church or chapel to signalize every sacred fiesta, as were once played on the teocalli the tlapitsali, huehuetland teponaztli,is carved out of zopilotewood and is a modification of the ancient pattern under Spanish influence. In Nahuatl discourseit bears the ancient name, tlapitsali. Local industries are few and almost all are European in character. Adobe bricks are made by anyone who builds a new house or repairs an old one; the simple technique is probably chiefly aboriginal. The twisting of ropes of maguey fiber is a domestic industry confined to a limited group of houses. This technique is European; a wooden wheel is used. The lime-burning done at the neighboring hamlet of San Andres is likewise European. Carpentering, ironworking, masonry, woodcarving, silverwork, shoemaking, and breadmakingare all in the hands of specialists; in each case the tools and techniques are European-the early priests were good teachers and the Indians good pupils. Menal6 declares that zarapes are made in Tepoztlan of tree cotton. I was unable to find any trace of such an industry. A large loom has recently been introduced by an educated young
16Op.

cit., 382.

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man for the weaving of shawls. The use of tree cotton (N., cuahichcatl) is, however, well understood, and occasionally thread is spun thereof by the use of pre-Columbianspindlewhorls(S., malacate; N., malacatl) which abound in Tepoztlan and are simply picked up in any yard and used. Even in the few surviving primitive looms, however, commercial thread is used. There are at least two of these looms still in operation in Tepoztlan. They are used only to weave women's belts. The structure and somewhat detailed nomenclature of this loom cannot find room for discussion here. The weft is set up on a framework (N., tzatzaztin)of ten short sticks driven into the ground. The upper end of the loom is fastened to a house or tree; the lower end is drawn tight with the backstrap (N., analoni).17 Of industries relying on special machinery there are two: the mill, to which is brought for grindingonly a small part of the maize eaten in Tepoztlan,'8 and the mixing and bottling of soft drinks of carbonated water and artificial flavoring. Several men are occupied with this enterprise, and the product is largely consumed. This fusion of Indian with Spanish features produces, it will readily be seen, three classes of culture traits: unaltered Indian elements; elements which have developed in Mexico from the impinging of Spanish features upon a homologous Indian pattern; and European elements transportedintact to Mexico. These three classes are respectively represented,for example, in costume by the sandals, the zarape, and the trousers, and in agricultural tools by the pointed stick, the coa,19and the plow. But while a separation of Indian from European elements is of interest to the culture-historian,it is of no interest to the native of Tepoztlan.
17Mena says, and probablyrightly, that the entire loom is called analoni. But my particularinformantsused the term for the backstraponly. 18 Thereare threereasons why the mill has only a limiteduse. To many the slight cost is prohibitive. Husbandsassert that the flavorof tortillasmade of mill-ground nixtamalis very inferior. And finally to bringher maize regularlyto the mill to the lowersa womanin her neighbors' neglectof her metate eyes. 19 The coais the flat iron hoe with the blade set parallelwith the handle. It preservesthe curvededge and the function(it is used to heap up eartharoundthe maize) of the aboriginal somewhat changed huictli,but it is now madeof ironand has probably its shape.

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The integration of certain European elements with Indian features is complete. Although few introduced elements bear completely Nahuatl names20 (the machete is one exception), the Tepoztecan is unconscious of any difference between these and pre-Columbian elements. He feels the same with regard to his sandals, which are almost wholly Indian in origin, as he does with regard to his white trousers, which are wholly European. The macheteis as Mexican as the petate. There is, however, a grouping of culture traits which corresponds to the prevailing attitude of the Tepoztecans themselves. So far as surviving Indian elements and as certain European elements are concerned, the integration is complete. The culture just described, involving elements of both cultural heritages, is that which is general throughout Tepoztlan. But not all of the imported traits found in Tepoztlan have entered into this general culture. Some traits of material cultureoccur in Tepoztlan particularly in houses near the central plaza, which are not a part of the general culture. Though perfectly familiar, they are possessed only by individuals more used to modern city customs, and are regarded by the majority of the population as exterior to common life. Features such as these have not entered into the culture because too expensive (brick floors;iron grilles) or because their general acceptance would involve radical changes in existing techniques (the fork). There is, therefore, a classification which corresponds with subjective categories, between the integrated Tepoztecan culture on the one hand, and secondary, exterior elements on the other. These exterior elements are thought of as attributes of city life, that is, of modern industrial civilization. They are brought down to Tepoztlan by people used to city ways. When a Tepoztecan goes to the city, he to a certain extent temporarily assumes the material culture of the metropolis. He has, not infrequently, a separate costume for city wear: dark
20In speaking Nahuatlone usesthe Spanish wordmodified to fit Nahuatl phonetics and morphology.MarianoRojas, a native of Tepoztlan,in his Manualde la Lengua Nahuatl (Mexico, 1927), lists Nahuatl names for many articlesof Europeanorigin, but most of these, while intelligible,are the artificialconstructsof a linguist,and few are in generaluse.

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trousers, a dark hat, and shoes, worn only on visits to the city. This simple fact expresses the nature of the community of Tepoztlan: no longer a primitive tribal society nor yet an urbanized community, it must nevertheless be defined, as it tends to define itself, with reference to the worldwide city culture within which it is now included. The following table lists some features of the material culture in columns representing the categories suggested.
GENERAL TEPOZTECAN CULTURE SEC( )NDARY
ETTLMENTS

Indian elements Mixedelements Spanishelements Men's clothing Sandals

Zarape

Undergarments; Dark trousers; shirt; trousers; shoes;felt hat vest; blouse, strawhat Women'sclothing
The rebozoand

(Quechquemitl; pitzcueitl)

Shoes

almost all other clothing The house Balconies; brickfloors; iron grilles.

Generalform and Tiled roofs; materials;temazcal; hingeddoors; granaries; turkeys chickens;pigs Water-tank; bee-hives House furnishings
Petate; otate bed;

tlequil;olla;
metate; comal; molcajete; chiquihuite; tompiate Cazuelas; jarros; bateas;

Table;candles; oil-cans;watersewingmachine
carrier; machete;

Brass bed; phonograph; oil lamp; forks

Backedchair; brazier

benches, stools
Tortillas; moles; tamales; atoles;

Foods and stimulants Bananasand citrus Cannedfoods; beer fruits; sugar;spices;

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beans; maize; chile; squash; tomatoes, pulque Tortas; tobacco Pointed stick Coa

rice; lima beans; beef and pork; chickens and eggs; coffee; agiuardiente Agriculture Plow Transport

Horses; mules; Ayate; chiquihuite; burros; oxen. mecapal; huacal: bule. Morrales. Musical instruments Teponaztli Chirimia Industries Weaving; adobemaking Brick- and tileBottling drinks making; ironworking; carpentering; shoemaking; breadmaking Guitar; cornet Phonograph; violin

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS